So... this is where things get a bit heavy. Worldbuilding-wise. Here you'll get all the explanations on how the Nightingale-verse is supposed to work, how I believe it all manages to fit together. Once again, you need to know that I've never read any of the Marvel comics, and I use and dismiss things from the MCU as convenient at some points; all the moves for Avengers until Ant-Man are valid (though I don't really go into Ant-Man himself), as well as my somewhat changed version of Dr. Strange (but then again, by that point I've changed a lot, so it's only to be expected). My Spider-Man is the one from the ASM movies(Webb's movies) and I only really use the first one, the story continues with what I showed in the Sidestory 'The Return', which was based on Raimi's first movie, from the original SM trilogy. Yes, I've said all that before, but I thought it deserved to be mentioned again.
Since I gave my whole list for my dreamcast last chapter I'm not doing it again, you can consult that whenever you want.
You don't need to have read (or watched) any of Tolkien's works to understand what I'm using here of his, it's part of the worldbuilding and I think I explain enough. If you still have doubts let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.
No song in this chapter, now lets get on with the story!
Draco
They were the Guardians, and would be so as long as stars shone in the sky…
It was a bit of a hassle, to get everyone together in order to have the very needed talk. First, they had to wait on Thor and Jane returning from their honeymoon, then there was the fact that mortals were still very much not allowed to set eyes on Asgard, and Rose had been vehement in certain people needing to be part of it all. So they compromised.
Pietro and Stephen, by virtue of being the chosen intendeds of Loki's daughters had been allowed into the Realm Eternal (also, the gals in question had refused to set foot on said Realm without them). Same had been true for James; though, after some consideration, it had been decided that he, Steve, Sharon, and possibly Bruce, didn't really qualify as mortals anymore. Which was why all of them bar Bruce, as well as Edward and Wanda (her having been given a similar permission to her twin brother) had acted as representatives of Midgard, and the Avengers in particular for the Aesir half of the wedding celebrations.
The day after Thor's and Jane's return they all gathered together in one of the most private council rooms in the palace, with all blinds closed and doors sealed. The rest of the Avengers, their families and a few other chosen allies (like the Guardians, JLA, Sanctums' Masters, the royal family of Wakanda, people from the Pax Accords and the UN) attended via magical holograms.
"Hey! This almost looks like a Jedi Council meeting." Tony piped up at some point, only to be smacked in the back of the head by his wife.
There were a few quite snickers around the room, from those who'd noticed that beforehand, or simply found Tony's actions funny. They all got serious soon enough.
"Thanos is on his way to Midgard with the remains of his army." Rose announced straight out. "He'll arrive in about five months."
Absolute pandemonium followed that announcement, it went on for nearly ten full minutes, until people began realizing that Rose had taken her seat again and wasn't saying a word. They began quieting then, waiting for what else she might have to say.
"Thank you." Rose nodded. "I first began seeing them a month ago. Have spent the last few weeks trying to divine as much as possible from my gift as I could. I can tell you this, his army… well, it's a pittance compared to what we've faced thus far. The number he's left are nothing compared to what he threw at us nine weeks ago. If I had to guess, and I hate guessing, I'd say that his loss that day truly affected him."
"That's why he's coming here." Steve realized. "He cannot hope to attack everyone at the same time, not again."
"So he'll go after those he sees as weakest, the most vulnerable." Sharon was on his same wave-length. "Hoping to take us out, and probably use our planet as a new base of operations."
No mention was made of what would happen to humans in that scenario, there was no need.
"Even without his army, the Mad Titan is a formidable enemy." Ylva pointed out. "The chances of even all of us together taking him out..."
"Are next to zero, we know." Pietro stated, a bit blasé.
"He's destroyed full planets before." Peter (Quill) offered, very pointedly not looking at Gamora, Nebula and Drax… though the basics of their stories were known.
"You know something..." Darcy blurted out, seemingly out of nowhere.
All eyes were on her instantly, and from her, to Rose. Whose lips were showing the beginnings of a smile; yes, there was something else she'd seen and not shared.
"Whatever is coming, it's huge." Charles Xavier pointed out. "Destiny… she had the same vision I believe Alfdis did last month, at the same time. Since then she's seen nothing at all. And it's not just her, every single precog has gone, for lack of a better word, blind."
"It's not just in your realm." Thenidiel acknowledged.
"So what? Rose is the only precog still having visions right now?" Hakon asked, he had a feeling that just wasn't normal, not even for their brand of normal.
"When Loki and Nightingale came to see me before their trip off Yggdrasil, I warned them my visions concerning the Mad Titan and his army were limited; the lack of order, logic and planning limiting my Sight." Thenidiel explained softly. "The Titan, and those who follow him, are a blank spot to my gift." She exhaled. "I also let them know that Rose Alfdis was blank to me as well."
"So, let me see if I'm understanding this." Bruce spoke up. "You cannot see Thanos, and you cannot see Rose, but she can still see him?"
Thenidiel cocked her head to a side, as if considering Bruce's words, then nodded.
"It's quite obvious, if you consider it." Loki offered. "It's all about chaos."
And it really was that obvious, it was no accident that Rose was called Goddess of Chaos.
"So, you can still See, even though they cannot See you..." Sif summarized. "That cannot be normal, can it?" She focused the last question on the princess in question.
"I've never been exactly normal, auntie." The auburn-haired girl used the endearment as a reminder. "I had a talk with Destiny, when I was in my early-twenties, not long after my arrival to Westchester, and before we freed Erik. She knew I had the Sight, and that I was interfering with the things I saw, she didn't want me to. According to her, precogs are meant to be, sort of, Witnesses to history, nothing more. I refused. Willow put it very nicely once when we were young. What's the point of seeing something if you don't try to make it better?" She shrugged. "And really, what was the point of seeing danger coming, tragedy, disasters, if I didn't try like hell to help? That would just have made me as bad as the ones causing the bad things in the first place." She shook her head. "I know it's not easy. Mama and Papa tried to use their foreknowledge a number of times, and it didn't always work out."
That was actually a bit of an understatement. Sif and Steve had almost died and they still had lost James for a long time… there was a reason why they hadn't tried anything that big again. Then there had been Howard… Nightingale still didn't know if her talk with the man (her brother) had made it so he suddenly had a good reason to be as he was (as he'd always been) or if somehow it was that which made him be like that (perhaps, without her talk, he'd have been a good father… Tony also believed he'd have died in Afghanistan then).
"In any case, I'm out of the norm, having the Sight and choosing to fight against what I see, when I believe it should be changed." Rose went on. "I've done it more than once. It didn't always go exactly right, but I will always believe it was better than the alternative."
She didn't go into details. None of them needed to know how many times Rose had effectively seen the end of the world (or a situation so bad as to effectively be the same in the end), in how many different ways. They hadn't happened, she'd made sure of that, and she would keep on the same track. Granted, she'd need some help for their current situation.
"What did you see?" Pepper finally asked.
Rose smiled softly at her, and everyone could see that smile was different from any previous one; it was like she'd been waiting for someone, anyone, to ask that very question…
"You know Thanos and his army are coming." Tony agreed with his wife. "You know the kind of power he has, probably better than almost anyone else here… yet you're so calm. That tells me one of two things, either you know already he's gonna fail, somehow, or you know how we can make it happen. So, which is it?"
That, certainly put everyone on alert.
For all answer Rose got on her feet, crossing the room slowly, before dropping on one knee less than five feet away from her parents, and in between them.
"I've seen your hands, without these." She explained, running her own hands very gently above their, now quite touching their gloves. "The glowing blue runes, the power the give off… I know what they mean..."
"What is she talking about?" Several people began demanding, the loudest of which was Thor.
Loki and Nightingale got on her feet then, waiting until their daughter was back on her seat, before turning to where Thor was sitting, on his parents' right, with Jane on his other side.
"When you brought up the matter of the Tesseract missing from the Vaults, we told you brother that we'd called on it, needed it to be able to travel from another galaxy to Midgard, in time to be of aid during the battle." When Loki spoke, he did so for both of them, and it showed. "We told you there was no need for you, or for our parents to be concerned about its current location. What we did not tell you, and purposefully so, was where it was, or what became of it."
"What is that supposed to mean?" It was Odin who demanded an explanation then.
"Technically speaking, the Tesseract no longer exists." Nightingale pointed out. "As for how that's even possible. That's harder to explain."
One look at each other, and the two were moving in tandem. Using their right hands to pull the gloves off their left ones, before extending their hands forward, to where the others could see them. There it was, like Rose had just described; the back of both their hands was covered in several runes, all blue in color and glowing faintly.
"You… you took the Tesseract into you?" Sif was trying, and failing, to understand what was going on, exactly.
"No, not the Tesseract." Loki shook his head. "The Cube was but a vessel. What we took was its core, the Space Stone."
That unleashed a level of pandemonium that was somehow worse than the one Rose's original announcement of Thanos's approach had caused.
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone froze instantly. It took more than a handful of seconds for everyone to process the fact that it had just been Frigg, the Queen, who'd said that word, in a tone so full of authority and power, the others could do nothing but comply instantly. The moment she was sure things wouldn't get messy again, the All-mother turned all her focus on the two standing.
"Oh my children..." She whispered, raising her arms but not really joining them. "Long have I known this day would come, even if I knew not when, or the circumstances. I knew the day would come when you both would step away from me. Into an existence naught but a few can join you in."
"What is that supposed to mean?" No one knew for sure who asked the question, but it was obvious many were thinking it.
"I'm afraid that's not something I'm in a position to explain." Frigg admitted softly. "Not because I don't want to, it's just… I don't know."
"They're Valar." Once again, it was Thenidiel who spoke. "It's Quenya, one of our dialects. It can mean several things: power, god, angelic power..."
"So what? They're gods?" James asked, evidently confused.
"Weren't the gods already?" Pete(r) Parker asked almost at the same time.
"No." It was Odin who intervened then. "Y… Mortals may have called us gods once, we may have great power, but just like many other beings that have come and gone through the ages, 'were not true divinities. That would require us to be truly immortal, invulnerable, to exist beyond the limits of the inhabited universe..."
"Valar aren't gods either." Erynion pointed out. "H… ancient mortals considered them such, but they weren't, not really. The best we could call them is Angelics."
"Angelics, like the Celestials?" Peter blurted out, alarmed.
"Peter's father is… was a Celestial." Gamora clarified.
"Yeah, we'd the bad luck to meet him a few months ago." Rocket added for good measure."What a dick! He killed all his children, then tried to do the same thing to Quill! And to us!"
"He wanted to use me, the power I inherited from him, to conquer the universe." Peter clarified. "Apparently I was the only one who had it from all his offspring… lost it when he died, though."
Several eyes narrowed. At least one person in the room was relatively sure that wasn't true, not completely. It was quite possibly that Peter had lost access to his father's power; if they'd been connected in some way… but that meant nothing about Peter's own.
"It's not the same, though close, in a sense." Erynion admitted after considering for a while. "Valar are Ancient beings, they ceased to exist before any of our worlds came into being…" He exhaled. "Great as Alfheim's libraries are, even our information is incomplete. Records from before that point in time are non-existent, what is known are old stories that were put into writing quite a while after the fact, and we have no way to know the veracity of any of them for sure. Some things we do hold as truth though. Like the fact that the Valar were, in essence, Guardians, they existed before the universe, and were sent into it by the One, Éru, to guard his creation, and his children. They disappeared when reality as it was then collapsed, becoming the 9 Realms as we know them now. And like I said, there's no one who remembers that time..."
"That… is not quite true." All eyes turned to Helena as she got on her feet.
As if by some kind of silent accord, Nightingale and Loki returned to their seats, Erynion and Thenidiel settled back once again, while Helena and Stephen left their own spots positions at the center of the room, across from one another, and with a space of roughly seven-eight feet in diameter in between them. Then, moving in sync, they began waving and twisting their hands, calling on their respective magic to illustrate things as they took turns to tell the story.
"I was born Helena Miriel Lokidottir, everyone present knows that." She began. "You also know I was born close to a thousand years ago, the first-born to Prince Loki Odinson, second prince of Asgard, and Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard. While I inherited my temperament from nana, I also got my looks and magic from ada. When I was still young there was a sort of magical accident while I was trying a new enchantment. I almost died, and gained many, many memories. In time, as I managed to assimilate them, I realized what had happen. I effectively remember, at least the basics of every single life I've lead. From the very beginning of creation. Stephanos, since what he went through in his confrontation against Dormammu, has come to gain those memories as well. He does not actively remember as much as I do, but that's to be expected, as his mind is still that of a mortal and therefore cannot comprehend as much as I can."
"There's still time Elaine, there's still time." Stephen quipped with a small smile.
"Why the change of names?" Gwen wanted to know, suspecting it was somehow important.
"We've discovered that through our lifetimes most of our names were somewhat similar, at the very least they had similar-enough meanings." Stephen did his best to explain. "At times they even sounded alike. The sounds and name that repeat the most, even if the writing might have changed, are the names we call one another when we reference those times. I am Stephanos and, of course, she's Elaine."
"Much like Mama was once Tinúviel, and now she's Nightingale." Helena pointed out. "Even her original names have a similar basis: Lalaith, and Silbhé, they're both related to laughter."
No one seemed to know quite what to say to that, but that was alright, they had gotten on a tangent. There were other matters that needed their attention. Like the story Helena and Stephen were there to tell. Which began taking shape in between them, as Helena began speaking again:
"In the beginning, there was nothing, just the Timeless Abyss, the Void." Helena's voice took an odd, almost echoing quality as she spoke. "Then the One created the first living creatures. No one remembers anymore what their names were, if they even had names at all. There were a number of them, though nine were particularly powerful."
"Few people truly understand the significance of the number 9, even those who study Numerology and the like." Stephen commented with a shake of his head. "It symbolizes perfection, the union of all the qualities, and the balance. That's what they were meant to be, the balance of creation."
"When Éru created Yggdrassil, it was but one world." Helena went on.
"Don't interrupt." Stephen snapped when it looked like some were about to do just that.
"It was supposed to be a perfect world, where all His children could grow and thrive." Helena went on. "He invited his First Ones, to be their Guardians. Eight of them said yes, but the ninth refused. Some believe that was the first mistake, that without all nine things were bound to go wrong sooner or later. I don't know that I'm so pessimistic myself. While it's true things went wrong, and more than once, they weren't matters of chance, or providence, they were caused. In any case, the one who refused, who remains as it was, as a whole being, it exists even now, in the Void, which many magical users call the Dark Dimension. It calls itself Dormammu..."
"What?!" All the Masters, but especially Karl, were shocked at that.
They'd known Dormammu was old, and exceedingly powerful, they'd just never known quite how much (on both things).
Those who'd heard Stephen's story of how he'd become a Master of the Mystic Arts (which were many) were just as surprised. The fact that Stephen had confronted such a creature… it made him rise in their respect a few notches, especially the more traditional Aesir present (like Odin, General Tyr, and the two Elders present).
"The Old Ones… they couldn't exist in Yggdrasil like they had in the Void, their mere presence too great for this reality; so they were each split into two." Stephen took over the explanation. "They were the first matches."
That drew everyone short, as those who knew themselves to be a match reached for their other half instinctively. No one commented on it.
"It didn't work for everyone." Stephen continued. "One of them saw their match as a weakness and destroyed it. Insanity was the result, and an evil like the Creator never believed possible. Was the cause of much grief during Yggdrasil's first ages, until eventually being banished back into the Timeless Abyss from whence it came."
"Of course that didn't happen fast." Helena went on. "Through it all, years and ages passed. Races were created and came to inhabit Yggdrasil: first the elves, then the dwarves, humans, tiny creatures who called themselves hobbits… each race had their own castes, bloodlines, their own territories, though they all lived in the same world."
"Of the remaining Old Ones, the matches, one pair chose to leave, supposedly to travel the world they'd been tasked with guarding, they weren't seen again until it was already too late." Stephen shook his head. "The remaining six pairs made themselves at home in a blessed island, separate from the mainland where Éru's children lived, they were called Valar."
Abruptly they were all pulled back to the matter at hand, back to the reason they were all there in that moment.
"The children of Éru respected them for what they were, angelic ones, envoys of Éru, Guardians of the World." Helena explained. "It was as it was meant to be. Years and ages passed. Things both good and bad. Melkor had left his evil before being banished, but there were a few willing and capable of opposing his evil. So the Valar did not interfere. Content to let the children fight for their own peace. They did not see the darkness coming their way until it was already upon them."
"We don't know how he did it, but somehow Thanos… it managed to rejoin with its match, not so much as to become as it had been before, it could still exist in this reality, but its power by far surpassed that of all of Eru's creations, even that of the Valar. Even the most powerful of the matches fighting him could barely keep up."
"By the time w… they learned what he was up to, it was almost too late." Stephen admitted grimly. "He wanted the Oira Mire, the Eternal Jewels… or as you known them nowadays, the Infinity Gems. The Jewels… when the Old Ones took physical form in these reality, even after splitting into two, there was a trace of power left. Éru added to those traces his own power, the remnants of the very power he'd used to create Yggdrasil. They were meant to be the greatest treasures, tools meant to be used in case the worst happened, to protect the world He created. Melkor and Thanos never had Jewels of their own, it was one of the reasons they were so envious of u… the rest. Believing Éru hadn't found them worthy. We will never know the actual reason. In any case, Thanos decided he wanted the Jewels, believing that they would give him the power he was missing, would allow him to go back to what he'd been. He never understood there simply was no going back, not for any of u… them. Even Éru himself could not have undone it."
"When he couldn't steal the Jewels he waged war on the world w… the Valar were meant to guard." Helena continued. "It was… awful. So much death, so much pointless death…"
"The Valar had only used the combined Jewels once, to banish Melkor. And even then, it happened only at the end of a terrible war, where many lives were lost. The only way to make it work was to corral Thanos. To surround him, so they might use the power of the Jewels on him… it didn't work. Thanos was too strong and too wicked. He had no care for life, any life, and w… the Valar had to fight him, while at the same time doing their best to protect the innocent… All too soon, half of them were close to death, and Thanos began taking the Stones from them. He'd taken five when the sixth match… they did the unthinkable… they…"
"They decided that the only way for Thanos not to obtain the six Jewels… was to make sure there were no longer six of them."
There were several sharp inhalations across the room, as those present began to understand what that meant exactly.
"They… they destroyed an Infinity Gem?!" Frigg gasped. "But that..."
"That's impossible." One of the Elders stated.
"Not quite." Stephen shook his head stiffly. "At least, not for them."
"Even then, it didn't come without a price." Helena added for good measure. "And as the Jewel in question was Fëa, the Soul Jewel… that was the price, their shared soul. Those two Valar ceased to exist entirely." She trembled just slightly. "And it wasn't just that, the backlash of a Jewel being destroyed in such close proximity to the other ones… it was cataclysmic." She wasn't sure how to explain it right. "The End of the World… literally."
"Yggdrasil broke into pieces." Stephen clarified as evenly as possible. "Into the Realms as you know them now. It took many years for the pieces to recover enough, for the different races to begin thriving again. Even then, one of the races was lost entirely… at least as far as we know."
"And the Valar?" Jane wanted to know.
"They all perished in the explosion but..." Helena took a deep breath. "Having joined Éru's creations as Guardians, they'd gained souls of their own. And so they joined the very beings they had once been tasked with protecting, in the cycle of life and death and rebirth. The Jewels were lost through the Realms for ages, until they began resurfacing again. Never for a long time. Never all of them at the same time… until now."
"What does it mean?" Phil asked. "That it's happening now?"
He was asking the question, the same many were thinking; and yet Helena and Stephen had no doubt that at least some of them suspected the answer already.
"You're Valar..." Thor said suddenly, turning to his brother and sister. "But not… not any Valar, are you? You're them. Two of them at least."
"We didn't know it until we did the ritual and assimilated Larma, the Space Stone, but yes." Nightingale nodded serenely. "We are two of them."
"Really brother, you must see it." Loki pointed out, an almost-smirk on his face. "Not just anyone can touch one of the Jewels. Their power is such… it can tear bodies and souls apart, unless they're meant for you. After all, they're each part of ancient souls…"
Several eyes turned to one particular half-human… however, most of them were focusing on Helena and Stephen instead.
"You are too, aren't you?" Tony declared more than really asked.
"What makes you so sure?" Stephen wasn't denying it, but he was curious what exactly had brought about that conclusion, or if it was just a guess.
"Aside from the obvious..." Tony began.
"Several times during your story you came close to saying 'we' or 'us' instead of they." Pepper stepped in, deciding they better get to the point. "You were trying to stay neutral, but it was clear the story was very much personal to you."
"Indeed." Stephen nodded solemnly.
"We haven't done the ritual ourselves, but Lúmë (Time) is ours." She signaled vaguely to the Eye of Agamotto, hanging from her match's neck.
"So… you know you are, because you have your memories, what about the others?" Phil asked.
"It's like I told my brother." Loki offered. "Not just anyone can touch a Jewel. I happened to do so, more than once, during the first Chitauri Invasion. Of course I didn't know the significance of such an act at the time. Not until much… much later."
Not until the Crystal of Neahtid had showed them what they'd missed, had showed them the possibilities they were unknowingly allowing to pass them by… Even then, they hadn't so much as considered the ritual until they saw the wormhole in the sky and acknowledged the fact that it was the only way to make it to Earth in time. Most of the others might not realize it yet, but being Valar was about more than just the amazing power, they were immortal, in ways not even Ljósalfár and Aesir were. Unless someone stronger than them came around and managed to destroy them both (and the Jewel) they would live until the end of time… even killing one of them wouldn't be enough as the Jewel would bring them back. Nightingale had made such a choice before, when choosing to be with Loki, instead of dying, but back then it had been at the prospect of living several thousand years, not literally forever. Even then, it was something they were willing to endure, because it was necessary, and they wouldn't be alone, they'd always have each other.
"So… if we've touched one of those gems, jewels, whatever, that means we're… what? Angels?" Peter asked, his voice becoming shriller as he went on.
"Valar. Vala in the singular. Or Angelics." Helena clarified.
"Peter…?" It was Nightingale who picked up on the subtle trembling of his body. "Darling?"
Several people did a double-take at the endearment, but no questions were asked; the family knew already that Nightingale had as good as claimed Peter as her son, which automatically made him family to them all.
"I… we touched the one inside the Orb, the Power Stone, in Xandar, during the fight against Ronan." Peter explained, speaking faster and faster as he went on. "We… we managed to get it out of the war-hammer he was using. He wanted to destroy Xandar. He was going to use it again and… we took it. We had no other options at the time! We had to take it!"
"Peter..." Gamora whispered, very, very softly. "We didn't touch the stone. You did. We touched you. And yes, it might have helped. But you're the only one who actually touched it..."
"So what?" Drax wanted to know. "He touched it, that means he's one of those… Angelic things?"
"Wait, but Ronan touched it too!" Rocket cried out.
"Like Helena said, there were more Valar back at the beginning than just the ones chosen to bear the Jewels." Loki reminded them. "Thanos could hold them, he still can, really. So there's a chance that if there are other reincarnated Valar around, they might be able to do the same. Doesn't mean they belong to them. Or that they'd be able to use them properly."
"They would still be able to cause a lot of destruction with them." Nightingale added quietly.
Like the Celestials on the records the Collector had showed not only the two of them, but the Guardians of the Galaxy too.
For a minute or so, no one said anything, then Steve cleared his throat.
"So, as interesting and… mind-boggling as this all has been, we still don't have a plan on how exactly we're going to keep our world safe from Thanos." He pointed out seriously.
"Don't we?" Tony inquired in turn. "I thought it was quite obvious."
All eyes turned on him.
"We need to find these missing Valar and have them finish what they started all those years ago." Pepper offered, knowing Tony would have drawn the whole thing as long as possible.
Her husband pouted at her like a child, but did not say anything.
"Yes… because it's going to be that easy." Clint scoffed.
"Actually..." Grant swallowed when everyone's attention turned to him, but he didn't stop. "Well, I wasn't there, but from what I know, all the Stones have appeared in the last seven years or so, right? Which means that, chances are, the ones meant to wield them, were around at the time they did. Just find the people who were there. Interview them or something. It cannot be that hard, can it?"
No one said a thing to that. Grant almost made the whole thing sound easy. Somehow, they didn't really think it would be.
xXx
Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy married mid-October (before the 'War Council' actually took place). Rose and Helena married Pietro and Stephen respectively in late November before taking off for their honeymoons, returning just in time to celebrate Christmas with the whole family. Then, right after New Year, Helena and Stephen went through the ceremony to claim the Time Stone.
It took almost a whole month longer to convince Peter to give it a try with Melehtë, the Power Stone. He and Gamora stood before each other, while a machine created by Tony, based on what the Guardians described had been used by the Collector to open the Orb in his Archive, worked beside them. After being guaranteed that if the Jewel wasn't meant for them, it wouldn't hurt them, they went through the ritual. The moment the last word was said the jewel seemed to turn into sparks, which twirled around the pair of lovers before shaping the jewel once more, in between their hands. Instinctively the two clasped hands then, briefly feeling the heat of Melehtë as it sunk into them, right before glowing runes in a violet color appeared on the back of their left hands.
"So… that makes what? Three of five?" Tony asked, looking at them once it was all over. "Two to go. That's good, right?"
"You forget Thanos has the Mind Stone." Natasha told him seriously.
"That doesn't matter." Stephen shook his head. "Larma was in Asgard, in the high-security vault. And still it answered when its rightful wielders called to it. If we can find those meant to wield Sáma, they can call the Jewel to them, no matter where Thanos might be keeping it."
All things told, he'd probably be keeping it with him, in the gauntlet he'd gotten a group of rebel dwarrows to forge for him ages ago, intending to use it to unite the power of all Jewels. That meant that if they did find the bearers, they might be better waiting until they were actually ready to confront the Mad Titan before having them call on Sáma. Thanos was likely to know what it meant, once the Jewel disappeared on him, and he wasn't the patient kind…
"How can we find the people the Stone is meant for if we don't have the Stone?" Clint wanted to know. "I mean, that's how you were sure about those two. But if we don't have it..."
"Actually, I have an idea about that." Pietro offered.
"You have an idea, or your wife saw something?" Clint wanted to know.
"She knows the wielder is close, but doesn't know who it is exactly." Pietro clarified. "She cannot know specifically until they actually claim the Stone." She shook his head. "No, this part was my idea. It's actually pretty obvious if you think about it. I mean, HYDRA used the thing to force our mutations to activate. And while several people have touched and used the staff it used to be in… only one has actually used the Gem itself, and we all know him."
It took a couple of seconds before they all understood what he meant: Edward…
Of course they had no way to know for sure, though it was a good plan. Still, they planned to wait until Thanos was closer, until they were ready for the confrontation.
That meant there was only one Stone left: the Aether, the Reality Stone… Artaurë.
Yeah, I also, finally, explained what the hell Loki and Nightingale did to get from another galaxy to Earth in time for Thanos's third attempt at invasion (am I crazy making it so he takes so many attempts at conquering Earth... and keeps failing?). Anyway, his last shot is coming, and the Infinity Stones are finally coming into play! Probably in a way no one ever expected... to be honest, even I didn't plan for things to go this go, not initially, the idea crept at me slowly and by the time I really noticed it everything was already in placed so I thought, why not? It's probably not going to be the epic battle some of you might be expecting, but I hope I've given you enough of those by now.
So... heaviest chapter of all, turns out to also be the shortest in quite a while... yeah. I decided I didn't want to overwhelm you. Also, since the Battle is what's next up I decided you just might kill me if I gave you a cliffhanger on that one so... better not to risk it.
See you next week. The FINAL CONFRONTATION is coming! Finally...
Next week: Hercules... because in the end it's all about the heroes...